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Ludwig Kirchgasser
Ludwig Heinrich Kirchgasser (b. July 30, 3685) is a Hulstrian politician (LVP/LB) who has been Chairman of the LVP from 3629 to and a member of the Reichstag since 3630. From 3634 to 3645, he was Staatsminister of Hulstria & Gao-Soto, only the second LVP politician to hold that office after Emilia Lahnsteiger, who held it from 3606 to 3611. He was previously Minister-President of Mitrania, the first non-HDV member in that position in a while. Prior to his political career, Kirchgasser worked as a farmer and mechnanical engineer. Political Career Kirchgasser started his political career in 3616, when he was elected to the Landtag of Mitrania. He was a supporter of Ariane von Gehrfeld in her bid to become LVP Chairwoman, and when she won the post, he was in turn chosen as Landbund leader and thus Opposition Leader in the Landtag against HDV Minister-Presidents Beat Gubler and Konrad Egli, who at times governed with absolute majorites. However, after internal squabbles in the Hosian Democrat camp, Kirchgasser in 3626 managed to break the HDV dominance in Mitrania and became Minister-President the same year. He remained in that position until 3630, when he he switched to national politics after becoming LVP Chairman after defeating his fellow Minister-President Ekkehard Borkenstein of Budenlar. LVP Chairman As Chairman, he moved his party away from the option of coalescing with the populist NBF, instead choosing to form a Grand Septembrist coalition with HDV and Solidarity, in which he became Vize-Staatsminister and Minister of Agriculture. In the same year, his LVP won the 3633 general election, amid the rise of several radical parties such as the far-right Allianz für Hoffnung. He thus became only the second Liberal Staatsminister after Emilia Lahnsteiger nearly three decades earlier. To defy the radicals, he invited all septembrist parties from centre-left to right-wing to join his cabinet, although, due to the electoral annihilation of Solidarity, his coalition was overall decidedly right-wing. Staatsminister: First Term (3634-3638) Soon after he became Staatsminister, the LVP suffered a setback as it could not prevent the Reichstag from banning gay marriage and gay adoption, for which his party apologized. The bill was partially reversed later. More successfully, Kirchgasser managed to privatize the national space agency, reduce government involvement in the preservation of national cultural heritage (instead allowing private individuals to do so with public assistance), as well as to lower the school leaving age from 21 (!) to 18, something LVP and NBF had promised in the election and which was strongly opposed by the HDV, causing a minor coalition row. In 3636, Mitranian Minister-President Ellen Theuretzbacher, a confidant of Kirchgasser, demanded more subsidies for her Crownland's farmers due to bad harvests and rising food prices. Although the LVP usually opposed spending increases, Kirchgasser, himself a Mitranian and farmer by profession, ordered his party to back the measure nevertheless, also as a means of assisting Theuretzbacher in her campaign to retain an LB plurality in Mitrania. Another issue that caused trouble for the coalition was the behavior of Education Minister Klaus Zinnberger, a former LVP/LB politician who had defected to the NBF in 3626 and who Kirchgasser shared a fierce rivalry with. Despite earlier promises, Zinnberger used his position to promote the controversial education reforms conducted by the right-libertarian LVP/NBF government in Budenlar under controversial hard-right Minister-President Ekkehard Borkenstein, which were officially aimed at purging an alleged left-wing bias from the curriculum of public schools and universities, and which were strongly opposed by coalition partners HDV and Solidarity, but also by a majority of LVP legislators. After Kirchgasser publicly scolded him for "consciously undermining the stability of the coalition for personal political gains", Zinnberger was sacked and replaced by Karl Hellewegge. With Hellewegge in charge, the coalition passed the Berufsbildungsgesetz, under which the national government provides funds to Crownland governments establish vocational training schools under the aegis of the secondary education system and the supervision of the national Education Ministry. At the initiative of the LVP, a nationwide regulation for charter schools was also established, freeing them of most restrictions and even allowing for-profit types. Second Term (3638-3643) In 3638, Kirchgasser's LVP won another general election, increasing its plurality to nearly 10%. Kirchgasser thus was able to remain in office, this time leading a three-way liberal-conservative alliance of LVP, NBF and HDV after Solidarity had collapsed. After the election, some of the paternalist health laws restricting the consumption of tobacco and alcohol, which had been established during the years of HDV dominance, were eased when the LVP supported opposition bills aimed at liberalization in this area. Fiscally, low-income earners received some income tax cuts counter-financed by a 1% increase in the luxury tax. However, Kirchgasser failed to rally enough support for his economic proposals of abolishing advertising standards and deregulating the stock market. Third Term and Resignation (3643-3645) Although his second term was less reformist, he won a triumphant re-election in 3643, and once again in the snap polls held in the same year after the collapse of the main opposition group, with over 32% of the vote and pluralities in four out of five Crownlands. However, shortly after his triumph, his downfall began, as the ultra-libertarian Budenlar branch of the LVP around Minister-President Hartmut Schellhoff and Labsburg Mayor Nathalie Lahnsteiger demanded that the Staatsminister sack the HDV from cabinet and form a two-way coalition with the NBF, which was numerically possible. Kirchgasser refused, but his rivals increased their pressure. When the NBF ousted its own leader, Kuniko Fujita, over the same question, the Staatsminister finally called a membership plebiscite, promising to resign if the party base voted in favor of the Yellow-Blue coalition. The vote narrowly turned out in favor of Yellow-Blue (51.76%), and Kirchgasser had to resign as LVP Chairman in June 3644. His successor, Franz Graumann, became party leader and also took over the position of Staatsminister in January 3645. Kirchgasser returned to the backbenches and subsequently refrained from high-profile appearances or statements.